8 Strategies to Help You Empty Your Mind Before Sleep

What’s your sleep latency? The term refers to how long it takes you to fall asleep. An average adult needs between 10 and 20 minutes, while people with a condition called “pathological sleepiness” crash out in under five minutes. Even eight minutes or less is cause for concern, a sign that you’re getting hit hard by the afternoon slump and never really recovering.

Of course, many sleepers have the opposite problem. The longer they lie there, the more they think about all the things they have to do: tomorrow, next week, over the next decade. All that stressing pushes their sleep latency into ungodly territory.

By now we’re all aware of the robust health benefits of good sleep; it helps us stay alert, creative and on point. But getting eight hours requires a bit more preparation than just showing up and hoping for the best. So what should you do? Work on emptying your head before bed.

We spoke to a variety of professionals who can’t afford a bad night’s sleep — founders, medical professionals, adventurers, pilots and veterans — to learn how they clear their mental runways for restful, stress-free sleep. They offered us the eight strategies below. Start implementing just a few of these, and your sleep latency will be in that sweet spot in no time.

1. Invest in Red Light

Dr. Jun (an alias) is an emergency-room doctor. He’s used to working long hours and covering erratic shifts where literally anything could happen. At home, he has small children who make catching up on sleep difficult. His secret weapon? Red-light therapy.

“I have a whole-body red-light therapy machine in my clinic, and that really helps me,” he says. “It encourages the melatonin production, which stimulates sleep. I try to get my red-light therapy in once or twice a week, and it helps give me that boost. I sleep well that night and feel more refreshed the next day, which puts me in a good state for the rest of the week.”

2. Sleep in Cycles

Maurizio Petrone, a digital marketing expert and founder of PressHERO, swears by a specific sleep hack.

“I follow what I call the ’90-minute rule’,” he says. “I plan my sleep in 90-minute cycles (the length of a complete sleep cycle). This means I either sleep for six hours (four cycles) or seven-and-a-half hours (five cycles), but never in between. This has dramatically improved my energy levels compared to sleeping seven or eight hours.”

3. Master Your Heart Rate

For adventurer Johnny Ward — who’s rowed the Atlantic Ocean and climbed Mount Everest — getting a good night’s sleep could be the difference between life and death. He keeps his rest regulated by focusing on his heart rate.

“The most important thing is to reduce your resting heart rate to as low as possible before you sleep,” he says. “My best night’s sleeps are when I wake up and my smartwatch has a medical alert because I’ve got my heart rate down to 30-something [beats per minute]. Then I know I’m killing it.”

He does this by focusing on cardio training every day and using a fitness tracker to dial in any tweaks. “What isn’t measured isn’t improved,” he says.

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4. Lock Away Your Phone

For Jeanne Retief, founder of the beauty company Figgi, a good night’s sleep starts the second she gets home.

“When I enter the house after my work day, my phone immediately goes into a separate room to charge, and the door to that room is closed for the night,” she says. “This routine creates an excellent ceremonial end to the digital day and tells my mind that I am starting the process of switching off.”

5. Take the Pressure Off

Hasan (not his real name) has been a pilot with a major international airline for two decades. This means a lot of late nights and early mornings, as well as traveling between multiple time zones, multiple times per day. Make a mistake, and he puts the lives of hundreds of passengers at risk.

“In aviation, the link between sleep and performance is a huge subject,” he says. “If we’re too tired to work, we legally have to say we’re not fit to fly.”

To counteract those restless hours in the middle of the night, Hasan does his best to stay sleepy. “I try to distract myself and not start thinking about having to get up in a few hours,” he says.

Instead of lying there, dwelling on not being able to sleep, he uses his iPad on its lowest light setting to read a novel until his eyes begin to close. “Give your mind something else to do while you drift off,” he advises.

6. Don’t Be Busy at Bedtime

Grant Aldrich, the founder of Preppy, used to make the mistake of sacrificing sleep for work, business and his social life. “Little did I know, I was becoming more inefficient by not letting my mind rest,” he says.

Now he sets a 10:30 p.m. alarm that signals him to shut down for the day. Other than that, he keeps it simple. “Some people have a half-hour downtime routine that takes up too much time,” he says. “I just clear my desk and change my clothes to be sleep-ready. To-do lists, social media and the next day’s agenda are already synced with my laptop and phone so I don’t have to worry about them.”

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7. Embrace White Noise

Brad, a former soldier who asked for anonymity, has seen some traumatic things on the front lines in the Middle East. “I made a career of watching young men trying to kill other young men,” he says. Understandably, he doesn’t always drop off easily. What helps is white noise.

“My sleep routine is based around relaxation,” he says. “I read for a bit, then I put my audiobook on, and a blindfold. I like to have a fan on for white noise, to block out background distractions. If I’m traveling, I use a white noise app on my phone. It just helps block out all the little things that might keep your subconscious on alert.”

8. Embrace Teamwork

Arnav is a consultant surgeon in London. His procedures are long and complex, making sleep even more vital than normal. Making a deal with his wife has allowed him to catch up on much-needed rest.

“If you have a young family, having a very supportive partner is incredibly important,” he says. “If you have a big operation the next day, the last thing you need is to be up all night with a baby.”

Arnav and his wife plan the workweek in advance, like meal planning. “It might be Monday and Tuesday you’re very busy, but Wednesday your schedule is a bit lighter…so it doesn’t really matter if you wake up a bit earlier,” he says.

Knowing this, he and his partner have devised a fair system that lets them know whose turn it is to get up with the kids or make breakfast on a given day. Not only does this keep them both rested, but it cuts down on stressful disagreements, too.